Stress, Anxiety & Procrastination Tips

Read these 38 Stress, Anxiety & Procrastination Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Hypnosis tips and hundreds of other topics.

Stress, Anxiety & Procrastination Tips
has been rated
3.1 out of
5
based on
1156 ratings and
1 user reviews.

What happens with all the time you spend avoiding a task? Are you relaxing? Not usually. Procrastination can be very stressful! Not only are you not doing what you know you should be, you are feeling stressed at the same time! Procrastination hypnosis can help you identify and put an end to the internal struggles, arguments and avoidances. This will enable you to attempt more, achieve more, and succeed more.

If you are in the habit of procrastination, lack motivation, and feel you are drifting, you may want to start over instead of trying to patch your faulty work habits. Start with hypnosis CDs to get you on the right track and give you the tools you need. Set goals and resolve to improve your time management. Start working at it right away. You can achieve most anything you want to.

Our daily lives can be very stressful. Medical research has shown that repressed stress caused by the inability to deal with difficult situations can lead to depression and even physical ailments as serious as cancer. Hypnosis is really a form of meditation. In other words, hypnosis places you in a state of deep relaxation. Whether you practice hypnosis with the aid of a therapist or on your own, there is no doubt this skill is an invaluable one to have.

Much illness is caused partially or wholly by stress. You can keep yourself in better health by practicing stress management through self hypnosis and using hypnosis CDs that alleviate stress and anxiety. Cardiac risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol can be reduced by stress relief. When your anxiety is gone, you will be better able to keep yourself healthy.

We've all been there at one point or another. Putting off a task or several tasks we know must get done. Most of us get around to them eventually, but for some, procrastination can get in the way of achieving at work, completing things at home, result in a general avoidance of trying anything new. Productivity engineering through hypnosis may be the solution. With a gentle retraining of the mind toward better time management, procrastination can be overcome.

Self-hypnosis is used to directly program your unconscious with affirmations and suggestions that would otherwise have been "edited" by your conscious mind. Before you begin, choose the stress-relieving suggestions such as "I am not afraid of subways," or "I am totally relaxed." You can use this programming as an effective method to help reduce stress and induce relaxation. Self-hypnosis isn't about brainwashing yourself. Nor is it about making you behave a way you don't wish to. Simply put, when you engage in anxiety hypnotherapy you are concentrating peaceful suggestions in order to improve the quality of your life.

Many factors can contribute to stress and inability to manage your anger: Post Traumatic Stress, the workplace, home life, abuse, and more. Relaxation hypnosis can reduce current levels of agitation or stress. As a result, your ability to channel feelings of anger into positive coping techniques is greatly improved. When hypnotherapy is used in conjunction with psychotherapy and counseling, underlying issues are addressed, behaviors are changed, and you can choose new and appropriate methods to react to anger-causing stimuli.

At first blush, meditation and hypnosis may appear to be similar relaxation techniques. Both involve quieting the conscious mind, which works constantly throughout the day and needs a break in order for us to avoid "burnout." However, hypnosis relaxation is a bit more goal-oriented than meditation. It typically involves incorporating thoughts, images and/or sounds while you are under hypnosis. Think of meditation as an instrumental version of your favorite pop song and hypnosis as that same song you love but with the words included. Both are effective tools; you need only decide which is appropriate for your relaxation needs at that time.

Decide for yourself what you want your life to be. Success for you is meeting your own goals, not what someone else wants for you. Being a good person and a loyal friend is success. Doing your job well, whatever it is, is success. Sometimes people lack motivation and have trouble with procrastination because they let someone else dictate their goals.

You may have read about the survey that showed fear of public speaking is the second most common fear. The first is fear of being burned alive. The ability to speak before a group is important, even if you are not going to be a professional public speaker. You may have to give a talk in class, want to give a presentation to a group, or even speak before a large audience. Success in business often requires public speaking skills. You should take whatever opportunity you can to practice public speaking before a friendly audience, and use self hypnosis relaxation for stress relief to calm yourself down before you start. Take a few minutes by yourself before you start speaking to concentrate on your breath and focus your thoughts. You can use notes, but don't read from a script.

To overcome procrastination and increase productivity, visualize yourself doing the tasks you have planned for the day. When something comes up to throw you off your schedule, as it will for everybody, don't just give up and put everything off for another day. Instead, reevaluate what needs to be done today and what can wait until tomorrow, and once again, go into relaxation and visualize yourself completing the rest of your tasks for the day.

Lack of confidence is at the root of many things people use hypnosis for. If you are reluctant to try out for a new job, afraid of public speaking, convinced you cannot better your sports or musical performance, or feel awkward in social situations

Do you find yourself putting off one particular thing though you don't have a general problem with procrastination? Don't try to force yourself to do it. Use hypnosis to relax enough that you can analyze the problem and either find another way to do it, or find the motivation to complete the task and get it out of the way. Hypnosis CDs can help you overcome blocks.

Have you always been a procrastinator or is procrastination new to you? If you've always put things off, you haven't learned to organize your time. Hypnosis CDs are excellent for helping you acquire organizational skills. If this is something new, there may be something in your life that is causing you to avoid certain things. You can use hypnosis relaxation to put your mind in a receptive mode so you can understand what the problem is. It's easier to think clearly when you are relaxed. If this doesn't work, you may want to see a hypnotherapist to help you work through it.

Before you take the test, put yourself in a light trance or state of relaxation and give yourself suggestions saying that you are confident that you know the material and that you complete the test easily. Make it present tense. Tell yourself that you will remember to check your answers and feel confident as you successfully complete the test. On the day of the test, take a few minutes to relax before you begin. This will work for a mid-term, the SATs,the bar exam, or whatever other test you are taking. It works better than staying up all night cramming, which just makes your mind feel fuzzy and increases your anxiety.

Don't put off studying, whether it's for a class or for something you need to learn for work. If you put off learning the things you need to know, your productivity will suffer. You will learn faster if you study while in a state of hypnosis. Put yourself in a light trance so you will not be easily distracted. Practice this and you will have a very useful skill and find your motivation to study increases as well.

Worry is being overly concerned about a particular event. In most cases, that event is in past, will never happen, or is otherwise beyond your control. Hypnosis can help overcome excessive worry. Getting over a tendency to worry too much is a form of stress relief, as worry causes much stress. One way to use hypnosis for stress management is to use suggestion to emphasize what is realistic. For instance, if you're worried that rain will spoil your picnic, give yourself suggestions that the picnic will be a great success, rain or shine. Of course, you have to make contingency plans to move the picnic indoors, if necessary.

Procrastination hypnosis audio cassettes, CDs, and even DVDs are a great way to help you jump-start a more productive life. If you have spent too much time putting off things you need to accomplish, self-hypnosis can be the answer. Retrain your mind to develop essential skills like prioritizing, organizing, and time management. Audio self-hypnosis empowers you to take control of your own life and get out of the rut of non-productivity.

Procrastination is common when you don't have an idea of what you should be doing first, so lack motivation to get started. Make a list of tasks according to importance and another according to how long they should take. You may want to do the most important first, or you may be able to do a lot of little tasks quickly and get them out of the way. If you overbook yourself, you may have to drop some things that are not important. Don't just carry everything over to the next day. If you have trouble prioritizing the tasks, put yourself in a light trance so you can concentrate better.

Hypnosis can help with dental anxiety. First, be sure you have a dentist who is sympathetic as well as skillful. A hypnosis CD can get you over your anxiety. You can also use hypnotic suggestions to tell yourself you are relaxed when you go to the dentist, and that the time passes quickly. You don't have to tell yourself how important it is to care for your teeth. You already know that. You can emphasize how much better you feel and look when your teeth are cared for. When you are at the dentist's for your examination, tell him or her you will be working on relaxation and stress management while you are there, and do so.

When you use self hypnosis for stress management, stay in the present. Do not make your suggestions in the future. If you say, "I will remain calm at the meeting," your subconscious may register it as something yet to come. You can, however, say, "I am calm when I am at the meeting."

Obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD) is a serious form of anxiety. People with OCD may, for instance, wash their hands incessantly because they are afraid of germs, or keep returning to their house to make sure the door is locked (over and over repeatedly, not just once or twice as many of us do). A professional hypnotherapist can help, first with stress relief, and then to find the root of the problem and help the individual overcome the phobia. Stress management can make this disorder easier to cure. A survey of 18 studies showed hypnosis improved the effectiveness of psychotherapy alone for several conditions including anxiety. (Scientific American, July 2001) For serious problems with anxiety, a combination of psychotherapy and hypnosis may be most effective.

Another way to put yourself into a light trance is to pay attention to your breathing. Breathe normally. Do not make yourself tense by wondering if you are doing it correctly. Place your hand on your stomach. With relaxed breathing it should go out with the inhale and in with the exhale. Say to yourself in, out, in, out as you breathe. You can use this for stress relief by itself or to relax enough that you can give yourself helpful suggestions. Be careful not to hold your breath when you are upset, as this can interfere with your stress management efforts.

Learning new things, from sports skills to playing a musical instrument, can enhance your quality of life. Often, the motivation is there, but you can't make yourself practice. You may be afraid of failing at something new and fall into a habit of procrastination. Put yourself into hypnosis and give yourself suggestions about how much you like to practice and how good it makes you feel. Visualize yourself doing well as you practice. Relax and go practice. Do it for yourself.

Productivity is the key to success in many endeavors. Procrastination can seriously cut into your productivity. If your problem is lack of concentration and organization that leads to procrastination, hypnosis can help you gain the skills you need to overcome that. Hypnosis itself is a state of intense concentration, according to Isadore Rosenfeld,M.D. (Dr. Rosenfeld's Guide to Alternative Medicine) By practicing hypnosis, you are practicing concentration.

Procrastination is a time management problem. If you find yourself putting things off, or forgetting about projects or chores, start scheduling your day. You don't have to schedule everything for a specific time. You can list tasks in a day planner and check off the ones you complete. Hypnosis can help in two ways. You can give yourself suggestions to help you remember to make that schedule, and to remember to check it and act upon it. This will increase your productivity.

A phobia is an extreme fear of, or anxiety about, a particular object or situation. Common fears, like fear of snakes, are not a major problem for most people. If you have a phobia that interferes with your life, such as fear of heights, fear of flying, or fear of closed spaces (claustrophobia), hypnosis for stress relief can help. You can relieve the stress of the phobia by giving yourself positive suggestions about how you react to the situation without fear and visualize yourself handling the situation normally. The phobia may be caused by an incident in the past. You may be able to recall that and relieve the fear by going over it, or you may want to see a qualified hypnotist to help you get rid of the phobia.

Relaxation is a part of self hypnosis and stress management. You feel relaxed and content when you are in a state of hypnosis. You can use relaxation as a form of hypnotic induction. Sit quietly and relax your muscles sequentially, from your toes to your scalp. When you are completely relaxed, give yourself a suggestion that you will recapture this state of relaxation when you say a certain word to yourself. It can be relax, peace, love--anything that seems right to you. With practice, you will be able to relax just by repeating the word. You can use this quick relaxation technique in many instances, including test anxiety, dental anxiety, and similar cases.

To get over procrastination, think positive thoughts, and think about doing things now. Getting better organized, being more productive, and not putting things off are not resolutions for some time in the future. Use hypnosis to increase your motivation with positive suggestions. Use hypnosis CDs to show yourself the path to action. And get started.

If you have trouble with procrastination because you have too much on your mind, try the red balloon technique. Visualize a big red hot air balloon in a beautiful meadow. See yourself going down to it. Take the things you are worrying about, one by one, and put them in a container attached to the balloon. When you are finished, let the balloon loose and let it float away, taking your troubles with it. When you are not worrying so much, your motivation to accomplish projects will increase.

If you have a certain place, say, a favorite chair or corner of the yard where you can be alone, make that your quiet place. (This can be an imaginary place if you prefer.) Practice self hypnosis and stress management in that place. Soon, you will be able to relax just by going to that spot, or even by visualizing yourself there.

If you're using more than a short suggestion for your self-hypnosis script, write it out and read it before you put yourself in a light trance. Your subconscious will remember. Tell yourself that you love to speak before groups, you find it exciting, and the audience responds positively to you. (They will if you're having fun and expect them to have fun too.) Relax yourself into a trance, leave the suggestion to your subconscious, then visualize yourself giving a successful speech. Wake yourself slowly by counting from 1 to 5. Open your eyes and imagine yourself being a great public speaker.

During a typical anxiety hypnotherapy session, your therapist will help you pinpoint the source(s) of your anxiety. Once this is accomplished, you are better able to recognize its form and function. Perhaps more importantly, you should also be able to take note of its onset. Under hypnosis, you are guided to accept that you are able to and will create new behaviors and methods to deal with the feeling of your specific anxiety or anxieties. In a sense, you are trained to turn down the volume on these anxieties and turn up the volume on calming replacements to those stresses.

It may be that the active ingredient in achieving stress relief is relaxation. The Institute for the Study of Healthcare Organizations and Transactions explains that Herbert Benson's relaxation response technique can alter blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of neurotransmitters, and thereby reduce stress. This is not hypnosis, but hypnosis may achieve the same effects through deep relaxation. It appears that achieving relaxation is important to stress management.

The hypnotic suggestion is key to your success in overcoming procrastination and increasing productivity. You give yourself suggestions, when working to overcome procrastination, to increase your motivation and get yourself organized. The suggestion, when given under hypnosis, goes to your subconscious where it can influence your behavior. According to Leslie M. LeCron, in Self-Hypnosis, repetition of the suggestion impresses it on the subconscious. You are more susceptible to suggestion when in hypnosis. Suggestions that relate to things you will do after the hypnosis session are called posthypnotic suggestions.

If procrastination is a problem for you because you can't decide what to do next or what is important, make a list of the things you think you should do and give them a rating of importance. Use the same technique for other choices, such as choosing what car to buy or whether to move, but rate them on a desirable quality. When you have all the basics decided, you can use hypnosis to concentrate on the variables and make a choice. Your productivity will increase when you can make informed choices and not waste time trying to decide.

Anxiety is a generalized fear or uneasiness. Sometimes, you may not even know why you are anxious. Try using hypnosis tapes or CDs. If the anxiety is especially deep seated and interferes with your life, see a qualified hypnotherapist who will help you find the underlying cause of your anxiety.

Being organized can help you be successful in your job. If you keep putting off important tasks, it will be hard for you to get ahead. If you find that your procrastination has started to hold you back, hypnosis CDs can help you get organized.

Ever wonder how you could make your life better and more fun? So have tens of millions of fans who have turned to LifeTips for answers over the past decade. We keep the tips, advice, books, podcasts and writing services flowing, so you can keep your life and business growing in the right direction. Upward!